1092 Mind Games
The spaceship Varian casually stole headed to Ubiq, one of the commercial centers of Centaurus.
As for Varian, he remained on the floor, staring up with a blank gaze.
Oob and Boo looked at each other and their patience finally ran out. He'd been like this for the last thirty minutes!
"Doesn't it hurt?" Oob flapped its wings and circled around the places he got serious injuries as it questioned in a sad tone.
"Huh?" Varian blinked twice and held the spots on his arms where the biggest injuries happened to occur. "Of course it fucking hurts. It's so much pain that any sane person would choose jumping into an array of scalding needles over it."
"…But you were laughing the whole time."
"That's better than crying in pain." Varian sat up and looked at his left palm. It was literally ripped off him by Helga.
If before, it'd have been a major injury. But it's just a minor injury now. Due to his insane regeneration, his perception of injuries was wildly different from other awakeners.
Taking a deep breath, Varian clenched his fist. A shockwave of aura erupted from him as the seven celestial powers gathered in his hand. They promised to break anything and everything he threw them at.
Compared to his earlier self, he's now at least 50% stronger. And he's much closer to rank 2.
"I need more such fights to grow strong." Varian thought back to the reason he started this journey and muttered. "I need strength."
"And Boo needs a body." Boo imitated Varian's deep voice, put on a tragic pose, and said.
Varian rolled his eyes and looked out into the space.
Thanks to the technology of the spaceship, they weren't traveling in outer space. They were moving somewhere in between outer and inner space.
That's why, the surroundings were completely dark but occasionally had grey particles twirling around. The spaceship was designed to specifically move at high speeds here and move it did.
From inside the ship, one would get the feeling that everything was receding back fast. It's also like they're thrown into an ocean full of black water and the ship was just blasting its way forward, pushing away the water around it.
If the spaceship traveled at its full speed in outer space, it'd take approximately 5 months to reach Ubiq from Proxima. But by traveling in inner space, it'd take only 1 day.
Varian decided not to waste a day and train.
Fortunately, he robbed the best spaceship on the site and it happened to belong to a celestial ranker. So, there's a training room.
—— —— ——
Two men stood on top of a tall tower. One man staring into space and the other staring at him.
"What a cunning man…" Baldur muttered softly. "Hope we never meet again, huh."
"Director, why did you let him go?" Star Chief Aster clenched his fist. "He's not a criminal, sure. But his behavior towards you wasn't even courteous. He blackmailed you, that alone is enough to warrant his punishment. That madman deserved some suffering."
Baldur gave him a small smile but didn't say much.
Since he wasn't willing to engage in corruption, Aster thought he was a righteous person.
He couldn't be more wrong.
Baldur just wasn't interested in exploiting the populace because of his upbringing. Engaging in drug games, corruption, and slavery revolted him. They felt…beneath him.
But he had no qualms about making some tactical sacrifices for strategic advancements. If that included killing unrelated people, so be it.
His number one priority was searching for that thing. For that to happen, he needed to remain posted here.
The reality of the matter was that for outsiders, a terrorist attacked the space station and got away with it. Baldur would come under lots of criticism.
To solve this issue, Baldur was prepared to kill Varian right after understanding the situation.
The only reason he didn't do it immediately was that he was searching for Varian's information in the larger database.
He didn't find it, so he let go of his scruples and was about to kill when Varian threatened to leak the videos.
A lot of people did know that Starsafe and Havoc were working together for the drug mafia. But if it's leaked to the public, that's another matter entirely.
Even though he didn't participate in any of the corruption, Baldur would also come under flak for letting it happen.
Many heads would roll.
In the best-case scenario, he'd become famous in the entire Duchy and surrounding regions all for the wrong reasons and risk exposing himself to those hounds.
In the worst case, he'd be transferred out, killing his mission to find that thing.
'That guy…' Baldur clenched his fist and recalled the look in Varian's eyes.
He was in pathetic physical condition, injured all over, bones broken, and muscles torn. Yet, he recovered in minutes. During the whole time, he didn't even wince in pain.
Baldur dealt with every type of enemy.
He wouldn't care if the enemy was smart or strong or fast or old. But he did fear an enemy who was crazy.
A crazy enemy was unpredictable. They'd do things without any measure, even if they end up hurting themselves.
Any sane person should've known that blackmailing the Director of the Starsafe agency was purely seeking death.
But that guy did it. And he seemed crazy enough to actually follow through it.
"That guy said he wanted to buy things, huh." Baldur turned his gaze back to Aster who hurriedly nodded.
"Yes, sir, according to those two with him, he's planning to visit Ubiq. And sir, what will happen to those two? They met him on the way here."
"Let them go." Baldur didn't see any point in killing them.
"Yes, Sir. Should we track that person? We can deploy some members in Ubiq."
"Ubiq…" Baldur's thought flew straight to the new Infinity store opened there.
Why would the grand Infinity Enterprises open a store in this backward and declining Duchy?
Officially, the reason was the discovery of some materials from the frozen regions.
In the elite circles, the reason was to exploit the situation when Centaurus Duchy would eventually be consumed by Barix Province.
'The real reason….must be something else.'
